Your Right to Know

A lot has been said in the past nine months about Senate Bill 5 and the effort to repeal it
known as Issue 2. Some of it, not surprisingly, has been a little oversimplified, loose with the
facts, or overblown. Here is a look at some statements in the final weeks of the Issue 2 campaign,
which will determine whether Ohio’s new law curtailing the collective-bargaining power of
public-employee unions stays or goes:

“It’s really about two things.”— Gov. John Kasich, in a speech on Thursday

To make a point about fairness, Kasich uses a hypothetical case: a single mom with two children
who pays a high premium for her health insurance and puts money into a 401(k) retirement plan so “
her kids can have something.” Isn’t it unfair, he asks, for her to have to do that and “have to pay
for someone who doesn’t want to pitch in and help with their health care and their pensions?”

Kasich is referring to provisions of Senate Bill 5 that would require all public employees to
pay at least 15 percent of their insurance costs and bar local governments from picking up any
portion of their employees’ 10 percent pension contribution.

The governor often makes it sound as if most public employees aren’t making all or even any of
those payments now.

All of the more than 55,000 state employees already pay at least 15 percent of their insurance
premiums, and none get pension pickups (Kasich sometimes acknowledges those facts on stage). Only
about 7 percent of other public employees get any pension pickup.

Also, while Senate Bill 5 would save money for many local entities, the 300-page bill also hacks
away at the political, fund raising and organizing power of public unions, rewrites layoff
procedures, prohibits teachers from bargaining for the buildings they work in, and greatly tilts
the bargaining table to favor elected officials.

“SB5 ... disrespects all of those that serve in the military.” —Dion Grener, a Lebanon firefighter, Oct. 27 news conference

If Senate Bill 5 takes effect, veterans who become teachers could no longer count as many as
five years of military service toward in-classroom experience. Today, that time factors into their
starting pay as teachers.

But SB 5 also would eliminate paying any teachers based on service time and institute merit pay
instead.

Other concerns that We Are Ohio, the labor coalition formed to defeat Issue 2, raises for
veterans, including health coverage for families while a public employee is on military leave, and
loss of seniority due to military service, are addressed through collective bargaining. They are
lost only if management eliminates them.

“In the last four years, Ohio has lost 400,000 jobs. That’s 400,000 fewer Ohioans who
contribute and pay taxes to our ever-expanding state government. Eighty percent of public budgets
in this state are now consumed by labor costs alone, much of which is used to fund fringe benefits
that are much better than the ones you get...like low-cost, no-cost health care and pensions, excessive paid time off and cash-out bonuses
that are costing the city of Cincinnati $93 million this year alone.”— Sen. Keith Faber, Oct. 25 debate

The cost of state government has grown, but largely because of Medicaid. Issue 2 deals with
public workers, so the more relevant statistic here is that Ohio has lost about 7,800 state workers
since 2007, down to 56,875.

As for the 80 percent figure, Building a Better Ohio’s own website states it differently, saying
“government pay and benefits, which now consume as much as 80 percent of local budgets.” A
spokeswoman for the group also recently gave the number as 60 to 70 percent.

The “$93 million this year alone” in payout costs for Cincinnati is incorrect. The figure, from
a
Cincinnati Enquirer investigation, is not for one year, but is the total owed to more than
900 city employees whenever they retire.

“When we listen to Gov. Kasich’s education adviser, who tells us we can expect 50 students in
each andevery single one of your daughter’s classrooms...we’re going to get to the point where you have to take a number.”— Dennis Eckart, Oct. 25 debate

This comment from Robert Sommers, Kasich’s director of the Office of 21st Century Education, has
been repeated in debates by Issue 2 opponents. Sommers said it during a March budget hearing, and
he was not talking about collective bargaining. He also did not say it would happen in every
classroom.

Sommers argued that class size “for the most part” does not correlate with student performance.
He suggested that in a “blended learning environment,” class sizes could go to a 50-to-1 ratio. “We
have schools, both in the urban centers and in other settings, that have found how to get
high-performance results, treat staff very well and do it for less than what we currently do.”

“
I believe in unions. I believe they have a place. I am not out, in any way shape or form, to go
after and target anybody.”— Kasich, Sept. 29 speech in Toledo

Kasich has pushed back strongly against claims that SB 5 is an attempt to bust public-employee
unions. He often cites his roots in blue-collar McKees Rocks, Pa., as the son of a mail
carrier.

But last week, a Toledo
Blade records request produced evidence that the “fair-share” and political contribution
language for unions that was inserted into the bill came after Kasich’s office suggested it.

“I don’t think you’ll have to wait for the budget to see these changes made to the state’s
collective bargaining,” Kasich’s legislative liaison Matt Carle wrote in an email to state Rep.
Kristina Roegner, R-Hudson. “We’ve proposed that they include them in SB 5.”

Rob Nichols, Kasich’s spokesman, noted that the original version of the bill eliminated
collective bargaining for state workers, but the governor insisted that it be maintained.

“Government employees have made more, 43 percent more than the rest of us.”-- Recent Building a Better Ohio ad

Issue 2 supporters have repeatedly cited this figure from a study commissioned by the Ohio
Business Roundtable and completed by a conservative Washington D.C.-based research group, which
factored intangible “job security” into its calculations. Also, this ad makes it sound as if public
workers earn 43 percent more in wages, but the study is clear that benefits boost the figure. Other
studies have put the figure much lower, or said that public workers make slightly less.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says that when total compensation is considered, public
employees cost $40.40 an hour, compared with $40.68 at private companies with at least 500
workers.

A recent State Employment Relations Board survey found that public employees pay an average of
9.5 percent toward their health premiums for single plans ($46 per month) and 10.7 percent for
family coverage ($136). Studies have put the private-sector figure closer to 30 percent.

“Issue 2 makes it illegal to negotiate for enough first responders to do the job. Fewer first
responders meanslower response times, and that can mean the difference between life and death.”-- Recent We Are Ohio ad

Several ads from Issue 2 opponents have hit on this theme, which relates to Senate Bill 5’s
redefining of management rights. Opponents have argued that the law makes communities less safe,
and schools less effective, because it significantly limits what can be bargained and lets
governing bodies implement their last offers.

If you believe that safety and school services will suffer, then you also believe that city
councils, county commissioners and school boards are going to let that happen — and issue
supporters say voters will hold them accountable. Local and state officials are not required to
make any changes regarding staffing levels, and circumstances undoubtedly vary from place to place
as to whether current levels are a result of union negotiations or what officials think is
necessary.

“Ohioans are tapped out. We can’t keep raising taxes. So the question is, are we going to
balance our budgets (by) laying off policemen, firefighters and teachers, or are we going to do
some reasonable reforms?”-- Faber, Oct. 25

Issue supporters argue that public salary schedules and benefits are unsustainable, but union
leaders say Republicans hardly acknowledge that local and state unions have made concessions
topping $1 billion in recent years.

Republicans recently tried to bolster their case by pointing to Lancaster, where Mayor David S.
Smith laid off 13 firefighters last month because of a budget shortfall. Faber mentioned it, as has
Kasich, as an example of what could be avoided if Issue 2 passes, citing the $1 million Lancaster
pays in pension pickups.

“You know how many firefighters you can hire for $1 million?” Kasich said on Nov. 3 in Akron.
Indeed, Lancaster budgeted $1,039,090 for pension pickups for 420 city workers that range between
2.5 and 6 percent.

But Smith, a Republican, has said the move was the result of poor income-tax collection and deep
state cuts in local-government funding — cuts implemented by the same Republicans pushing Issue 2.
And some Lancaster unions have already agreed to end pension pickups next year, something city
officials say the mayor is hoping for from the rest of the city’s employees.

“Issue 2 will eliminate the minimum salary for teachers.”– Various statements and tweets

Practically speaking, Ohio has no minimum salary for teachers. The teacher salary schedule in
state law has not been updated since 2001, and it starts at $20,000. According to the Department of
Education, the average starting teacher in Ohio gets $36,622. Issue 2 would not set new salaries
for any public workers, but it would require any raises be given under a new merit system, rather
than through automatic step increases in a schedule that pays good and bad employees the same.

“Whoever created the notion that you are the best teacher and you were the last one hired, that
you have to be the first one fired — how do we even create a policy like that?”-- Kasich, Tuesday

Senate Bill 5 would no longer allow layoffs to occur based strictly on seniority; however, this
doesn’t matter for teachers because the two-year state budget bill, which took effect July 1,
contains the same prohibition. Senate Bill 5 would expand it to most public workers.